In the early days of March

In the early days of March

In the early days of March –my favourite month, since I’m a habitual walker, covering miles andmiles of countryside– I’ll head for Green Pastures. (For the record, I’m wont to call them “my FarQuest”, because they are the distant place where I’ll search for a slightly better existence).However, before leaving, I’ll quickly visit a large shopping centre which opens at nightfall andwhose name is “Nightmall”. Here, people can buy their last items of living; for example, I’minterested in the “Adieu department”, that sells happy moments to be enjoyed right on the thresholdof the afterworld: indeed they are especially conceived to mitigate man’s terror of death. So even I,the poor fellow afflicted by never-ending suffering, am going to have an instant of gladness, at last.But which one will I choose, during my brief stop at the shopping precinct? Don’t know, yet. Thoseon display are of every kind. As a result, taking a decision promises to be very difficult. My mindmight get tired, while meditating. No problem: to restore my grey matter to its brain energies –andmake it feel refreshed, as if it had rested in peace–, I’ll just sit down at a table of the interior puband then I’ll order my final coffee(n).

PIETRO PÀNCAMO is a poet, short-story writer and critic, to whom the Italian Swiss national radio devoted, in 2012, an episode of the transmission Poemondo. His works have appeared in several periodicals, including «IF. Insolito & Fantastico» (one of the most influential Italian magazines of Fantasy and Science Fiction), «Gradiva» (a review edited twice a year in New York by the highly respected man of letters Luigi Fontanella), the Turin newspaper «La Stampa», «Poesia» (the poetry blog of the TV channel “RAI News”), the webportal «Poeti e poetastri» (belonging to the literary agency “Perroni&Morli Studio”, which often collaborates with the publishing house Bompiani) and the electronic version of the «Corriere Fiorentino» («Corriere della Sera»’s Florence edition). Some of his texts in verse were selected for Poetando. L’uomo della notte (an anthology edited by the Italian leading journalist Maurizio Costanzo and printed in 2009 by Aliberti editore).